Christian Groß (born 8 February 1989) is a German former professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

centre back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield position whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Centre-backs are usually positioned in pairs, with one full-back on either s ...

Career

After playing in the youth team of

VfL Osnabrück VfL Osnabrück is a German multi-sport club in Osnabrück, Lower Saxony. It currently fields teams in basketball, gymnastics, swimming, table tennis, and tennis but is by far best known for its football section. History Foundation to WW2 The cl ...

for a year, Groß joined the youth department of

Hamburger SV Hamburger Sport-Verein e.V. (), commonly known as Hamburger SV () or Hamburg (), is a German sports club based in Hamburg, with its largest branch being its football section. Though the current HSV was founded in June 1919 from a merger of three ...

in 2006, at the age of 17. After two years in the Hamburg under-19 team, he was promoted to

Hamburger SV II Hamburger SV II are the reserve team of German association football club Hamburger SV. Until 2005 the team played as Hamburger SV Amateure. The team has qualified for the first round of the DFB-Pokal, the German Cup, on five occasions. They cur ...

in 2008, which played in the

Regionalliga Nord The Regionalliga Nord ( en, Regional League North) is the fourth tier of the German football league system in the states of Lower Saxony, Schleswig-Holstein, Bremen and Hamburg. It is one of five leagues at this level, together with the Regional ...

. He became a regular in the defensive midfield in the second half of the season, and was given a professional contract for the following season. He trained with the first team and was one of the most important players in the second team, but never made an appearance in the

Bundesliga The Bundesliga (; ), sometimes referred to as the Fußball-Bundesliga () or 1. Bundesliga (), is a professional association football league in Germany. At the top of the German football league system, the Bundesliga is Germany's primary footba ...

. During his time at Hamburg II, he was called up to the German under-20 national team, where he made a brief appearance in a friendly against Italy on 7 April 2010. In 2011, he decided to leave Hamburger SV and joined

SV Babelsberg 03 SV Babelsberg 03 is a German association football club based in Potsdam-Babelsberg, on the outskirts of Berlin. The team was founded as ''Sport-Club Jugendkraft 1903'' and again as ''SG Karl-Marx Babelsberg'' in 1948 as successor to the pre-war ...

. He made his first appearance in professional football on 23 July 2011, the first matchday of the

2011–12 3. Liga The 2011–12 3. Liga was the fourth season of the 3. Liga, Germany's third tier of its football league system. The season commenced on 22 July 2011, two weeks earlier than the 2011–12 Bundesliga season and one week after the 2011–12 2. Bun ...

. For the 2014–15 season, he moved to his youth club VfL Osnabrück, where he was a regular in the defensive midfield and was the team's captain from 2016 onwards. He joined fourth-division club

Werder Bremen II SV Werder Bremen II is the reserve team of SV Werder Bremen. It plays in Regionalliga, the fourth level of the German football league system, and has qualified for the first round of the DFB-Pokal on nineteen occasions. It also has won the Germ ...

for the 2018–19 season, where he was also named team captain and, as one of the few older players in the under-23 team, had the task of passing on his experience to the young talents. In the pre-season of the 2019–20 season, Groß trained with the

Werder Bremen Sportverein Werder Bremen von 1899 e. V. (), commonly known as Werder Bremen (), Werder or simply Bremen, is a German professional sports club based in Bremen, Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen. Founded on 4 February 1899, they are be ...

first team. He was called up as a centre-back as there were not enough players available for this position due to injuries. After good training and test match performances, Groß debuted in an official match for Bremen's first team on 11 August 2019 in a 6−1 win against

Atlas Delmenhorst Atlas Delmenhorst is a German association football club from the city of Delmenhorst, Lower Saxony who play in the fourth-tier Regionalliga Nord. The club, originally formed in a merger in 1973, folded in 2002 after declaring insolvency but was ...

in the first round of the

DFB Cup The DFB-Pokal ( is a German knockout Association football, football cup competition held annually by the German Football Association (DFB). Sixty-four teams participate in the competition, including all clubs from the Bundesliga and the 2. Bundesl ...

. On 1 September, he made his

debut at the age of 30, coming on as a substitute in a 3−2 win over

FC Augsburg Fußball-Club Augsburg 1907 e. V., commonly known as FC Augsburg () or Augsburg, is a German football club based in Augsburg, Bavaria. FC Augsburg play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. The team was founded as ...

. With now five Werder defenders injured, he played the next four league games as a centre back. The original plan to reassign him to the second team at some point during the season was ultimately scrapped because of his good performances. In the 2019−20 season, Groß played a total of 14 Bundesliga matches, appearing just once for the second team. Groß remained part of the Bundesliga squad in the 2020–21 season and was now regularly deployed in both central defence and defensive midfield, making 23 appearances in total. At the end of the season, Werder Bremen were relegated to the

2. Bundesliga The 2. Bundesliga ( ) is the second division of professional football in Germany. It was implemented 11 years after the founding of the Fußball-Bundesliga as the new second division for professional football. The 2. Bundesliga is ranked below ...

. In June 2021, Groß was the first player of the Bremen squad to announce that he would continue to play for Werder Bremen in the second division. At the end of the 2021–22 season, the club was promoted back to the first division, with Groß appearing in 27 league matches. In March 2024, Groß announced his intention to end his playing career at the end of the 2023–24 season. On 18 May 2024, he played his last Bundesliga match against

VfL Bochum Verein für Leibesübungen Bochum 1848 Fußballgemeinschaft, commonly referred to as simply VfL Bochum (), is a Football in Germany, German association football club based in the city of Bochum, North Rhine-Westphalia. The club has spent 35 seas ...

. Starting from September 2024, he will work in the scouting department of

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, th ...

Career statistics

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gross, Christian 1989 births Living people German men's footballers Footballers from Bremen (city) Men's association football midfielders Germany men's youth international footballers Bundesliga players 2. Bundesliga players 3. Liga players Regionalliga players Hamburger SV II players Hamburger SV players SV Babelsberg 03 players Sportfreunde Lotte players VfL Osnabrück players SV Werder Bremen II players SV Werder Bremen players